 Martial Arts As Early Intervention for Teen Drug Abuse
 Biography Overview This is a Stage 1A /1B behavioral therapy development project with the aim of developing and piloting an early intervention for adolescents who are in the early stages of substance use/misuse based upon traditional martial arts. In recent years, research has primarily focused on either substance use prevention or treatments for adolescents who have already progressed to serious substance use disorders (SLID). A major research gap has been in developing and evaluating early interventions for adolescents who are in the early stages of substance use/misuse. Traditional martial arts already embody many of the principles common to most existing early interventions. With only minor modifications, existing martial arts programs have the potential of being transformed into effective and widely available early interventions for adolescents at risk for developing SLID. The initial phase of this application will consist of modifying an existing martial arts program and program manual into a 6-month intervention and intervention manual. The initial program and manual will be pre-piloted with two separate cohorts of six subjects each. Subjects will be adolescents with evidence of current drug use and at least one identifiable area of psychosocial/behavioral problems (education, emotional/behavioral dysfunction, or family and/or peer relationships). Revisions to the program and manual will be made utilizing feedback from interventionists and study subjects. Training and adherence procedures will also be developed and piloted. Once the program and manual are finalized, a larger pilot study will be conducted to evaluate the acceptability of the intervention and to obtain estimates of effect size for a larger controlled trial, should the intervention appear to be efficacious. 40 adolescent subjects, similar to those in the pre-pilot phase, will be randomized to receive either the 6-month martial arts intervention or a waitlist control group. Outcome measures will be assessed monthly and at the conclusion of the intervention, and will include assessments of drug use and behavioral/psychosocial functioning.
Time
|